User:Louis/Fender Stratocaster Copyright Enforcement: Difference between revisions

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 == Sales Data Demands ==
-The letters demanded commercial sales data on how many of the instruments had been sold, to calculate potential damages.<ref name="guitarcom-industry" /> The demand was for aggregate commercial figures, not individual customer records.
+The letters demanded that recipients ''provide sales data on how many of these instruments have been sold'' and pay damages.<ref name="guitarcom-industry" /> No published excerpt used the words "customer data," "customer information," or "personal data." LSL Instruments, the most prominent public recipient, described the demand in its GoFundMe statement in terms of the business threat to production and legal costs, with no mention of customer records.<ref name="gw-lsl" />
+[[File:Fender-Stratocaster-BirdBird-data-demand-language.png|thumb|center|upright=2.2|Guitar.com reporting that the cease and desist letter sent to LSL Instruments demanded the company ''hand over sales data regarding these instruments'' in addition to stopping production and recalling unsold inventory.<ref name="guitarcom-lsl" />]]
 == Consumer Ownership Rights ==
-A person who already owns an S-style guitar is not a target of this campaign. The recall demand in the letters reaches ''any existing unsold inventory,'' which is commercial stock sitting in EU warehouses and showrooms, not instruments already sold to players.<ref name="guitarcom-industry" /> No end user has been ordered to return a guitar. Enforcement runs against the builders, distributors, and retailers in the commercial chain, the parties named in the Bird & Bird letters.<ref name="guitarcom-industry" />
+The Bird & Bird letters were addressed to guitar makers. The recall language required recipients to ''recall and destroy any existing unsold inventory,''<ref name="guitarcom-industry" /> meaning commercial stock held by builders and dealers that had not yet reached end consumers.
+The consumer-return reading arose from the dominant cultural meaning of "recall." In product safety contexts, a recall means retrieving goods already in consumers' hands: cars, appliances, food.
+Directive 2001/29/EC provides at Article 4(2) that once a rights-holder places a physical copy on the market within the EU, the distribution right over that specific object is exhausted.<ref name="eu-infosoc" /> In German IP law, the Federal Court of Justice held in I ZR 208/15 (May 4, 2017) that the Rückruf obligation runs to commercial customers in the supply chain.<ref name="bgh-recall" /> Fender CEO Edward Cole confirmed the scope in June 2026: Fender had ''no intention of going after artists, players, collectors, or anyone who simply loves to make music.''<ref name="gw-ceo" />
+[[File:Fender-Stratocaster-EU-first-sale-exhaustion.png|thumb|center|upright=2.2|Article 4 of Directive 2001/29/EC on EUR-Lex, providing in section 2 that the distribution right is not exhausted unless the first sale or other transfer of ownership in the Community is made by the rightholder or with consent.<ref name="eu-infosoc" />]]
+[[File:Fender-Stratocaster-Cole-consumer-scope.png|thumb|center|upright=2.2|Guitar World reporting Fender CEO Edward Bud Cole stating at a June 2026 dealer event that ''Fender has no intention of going after artists, players, collectors, or anyone who simply loves to make music.''<ref name="gw-ceo" />]]
 == CEO Walkback ==
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 <ref name="guitarcom-ceo">{{Cite web |url=https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fender-ceo-responds-backlash-cease-and-desist/ |title=Fender CEO responds to cease-and-desist backlash, says company is not suing anybody |publisher=Guitar.com |date=2026-06 |access-date=2026-06-16}}</ref>
 <ref name="gw-ceo">{{Cite web |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/electric-guitars/fender-ceo-addresses-cease-and-desist-backlash |title=Fender CEO addresses Strat cease-and-desist backlash |publisher=Guitar World |date=2026-06 |access-date=2026-06-16}}</ref>
+<ref name="eu-infosoc">{{Cite web |url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32001L0029 |title=Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society |publisher=EUR-Lex |date=2001-05-22 |access-date=2026-06-16}}</ref>
+<ref name="bgh-recall">''Bundesgerichtshof'' [BGH], I ZR 208/15 (May 4, 2017) (Ger.).</ref>
 </references>